Home School Life Journal

Home School Life Journal ........... painting by Katie Bergenholtz

"Let us strive to make each moment beautiful."

Saint Francis DeSales

A Treehouse for Robin Hood

Quentin received as a Christmas present a whole set of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. He loves them, but he longed for a treehouse for them. I had seen lots of popsicle sticks houses for girls,(at One Crafty Mumma, Almost Unschoolers, A Little Hut to name a few) but as I have said before, I do not possess crafting talent. I was afraid to attempt it. We searched for doll houses to use, but they all either looked to girlish or were too expensive. I finally caved in to his wishes and armed with a ton of popsicle sticks, I began my adventure to make a treehouse for Robin Hood.

I had to scale it to Robin Hood, so it had to be quite a bit larger than the ones I have been seeing. Instead of one row of sticks, it had to be two rows high. Did I mention that I am not a crafty momma?

I did notice that all of the popsicle houses had a loft, and I did find out that they do add a bit to the stability of the house, so I added one in my plan. I also noticed that One Crafty Mumma's house had the sticks going up the sides forming a type of baseboard. I found that this was also gave it a stabalizing effect.

So many, many pieces and several hot glue gun burns later, I had all my pieces. It was time to put them all together and hope for the best.

I had originally planned for the house to have a roof that could come off, but it was not stable enough that way, as large as it was, so I glued the roof on, but left a large doorway.

No, it will not win awards in the beauty department, but my lack of skill did kind of make it look more rustic, like a boy's Robin Hood treehouse should. At least that is what we are telling ourselves.

I also left an opening in the back as sort of a window as it was rather dark inside without it. Quentin said that it was a good place for Robin to shoot his arrows.

It was now time for the Merry Men to occupy their house.

My plan is to find a sturdy branch with several limbs, mount it on a platform and glue the treehouse in the limbs. But that is for another day.

Can I just say...Wow! and Wow! again. You sure have high standards about what a crafty momma should be, I don't know that I'd ever be brave enough to attempt to build something like that using craft sticks :-)